The author of this story is as far as I know anonymous. My friend
Vickie fromThe
Paver's Nest shared it with me and I wanted to
share it with all of you.
Hope you are blessed by it too!!!

The Teacup

A
couple vacationing in Europe went strolling down a little
street and saw a quaint little gift shop with a beautiful
teacup in the window. The lady collected teacups and she
wanted this one for her collection, so she went inside to
buy the teacup, and as the story goes the teacup spoke
and said:

"I want you to know that I have not always looked
like this. It took the process of pain to bring me to
this point. You see, there was a time when I was just
clay and the Master came and he pounded me and he
squeezed me and he kneaded me and I screamed: "STOP
THAT!". But he just smiled and said, "Not
yet".

Then he took me and put me on the shelf and I went round
and round and round and round... and while I was spinning
and getting dizzier and dizzier I screamed again and I
said, "Please get me off this thing... please get me
off!!!" And the Master was looking at me and he was
smiling, as he said, "Not yet".

Then he took me and walked toward the oven and shut the
door and turned up the heat and I could see him through
the window of the oven and it was getting hotter and
hotter and I thought, "He's going to burn me to
death!".

And I started pounding on the inside of the oven and I
said, "Master, let me out, let me out, let me
out!", and I could see that he was smiling as he
said "Not yet". Then he opened the door and I
was fresh and free and he took me out of the oven and he
put me on the table and then he got some paint and a
paintbrush.

He started dabbing me and making swirls all over me and I
started to gag and I said: "Master, stop it... stop
it... stop it please... you're making me gag". He
just smiled as he said "not yet".

Then very gently he picked me up again and he started
walking toward the oven and I said, "Master, NO!!
Not again, pleeeease!!". He opened the oven door and
he slipped me inside and he shut the door and this time
he turned the heat up twice as hot as before and I
thought, "He's going to kill me!!", and I
looked through the window of the oven and I started to
pound on it, saying, "Master... Master, please let
me out... please let me out... let me out!".

I could see that he was smiling but I also noticed a tear
trickle down his cheek as I watched him mouth the words,
"Not yet!"

Just as I thought I was about to die, the door opened and
he reached in ever so gently and took me out, fresh and
free and he went and placed me on a high shelf and he
said: "There, I have created what I intended. Would
you like to see yourself?" I said, "Yes".
He handed me a mirror and I looked and I looked again and
I said, "That's not me, I'm just a lump of
clay".

He said, "Yes, that IS you, but it took the process
of pain to bring you to this place. You see, had I not
worked you when you were clay, then you would have dried
up.

If I had not subjected you to the stress of the wheel you
would have crumbled. If I had not put you into the heat
of the oven you would have cracked. If I had not painted
you there would be no color in your life. But, it was the
second oven that gave you the strength to endure. Now you
are everything I intended you to be - from the
beginning." And I, the teacup, heard myself saying
something I never thought I would hear myself saying,
"Master, forgive me, I did not trust you. I thought
you were going to harm me, I did not know you had a
glorious future and a hope for me. I was too
shortsighted, but I want to thank you.

I want to thank you for the suffering. I want to thank
you for the process of pain. Here I am! I give you myself
- fill me; pour from me, use me as you see fit. I really
want to be a vessel that brings you glory within my
life."